The schoolmaster said
I could learn anything I chose, but my father, who had no great learning
himself, saw little use in much for me, and took me away betimes, and
kept me with him about the farm. Gregory was made into a kind of
shepherd, receiving his training under old Adam, who was nearly past his
work. I think old Adam was almost the first person who had a good
opinion of Gregory. He stood to it that my brother had good parts,
though he did not rightly know how to bring them out; and, for knowing
the bearings of the Fells, he said he had never seen a lad like him. My
father would try to bring Adam round to speak of Gregory's faults and
shortcomings; but, instead of that, he would praise him twice as much, as
soon as he found out what was my father's object.
One winter-time, when I was about sixteen, and Gregory nineteen, I was
sent by my father on an errand to a place about seven miles distant by
the road, but only about four by the Fells. He bade me return by the
road, whichever way I took in going, for the evenings closed in early,
and were often thick and misty; besides which, old Adam, now paralytic
and bedridden, foretold a downfall of snow before long.
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